The invention relates to a safety-belt arrangement in a vehicle, especially a passenger car, of the type having a retractable belt and a feeder arm which engages the belt to move the same from a retracted position toward a feed position where the passenger can readily grasp and buckle the same.
In a known safety-belt arrangement of this type (German Offenlegungsschrift No. 3,302,356), the feeder arm is arcuate and is retained in a guide tube as a guide part on the center column of the vehicle, and a drive device engages on the feeder arm and can move the latter between the position of rest and the feed position. The safety belt is designed as a three-point belt, the holder of which is in the form of an upper deflecting fitting. It is known to arrange the upper deflecting fitting so as to be vertically adjustable along the vehicle center column, in order to adapt the safety belt to vehicle occupants of varying sizes.
Because the upper deflecting fitting of the safety belt is vertically adjustable, the belt lug at the free end of the feeder arm has to be made very large, so that it can cover the entire range of vertical adjustment of the belt band guided through it. Such a large belt lug is not only a hinderance in the position of rest since it projects on both sides when the center column is narrow, but it also has a disturbing effect in the feed position.
An object on which the invention is based is to provide a safety-belt arrangement of the type mentioned above, in which, despite the adaptability to vehicle occupants of varying sizes, the belt lug of the feeder arm can be made small, compact, as space-saving as possible and unobtrusive.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by providing that the deflecting belt holder and the guides for the feeder arm are coupled as a unit for vertical adjusting movements. Advantageous further features of preferred embodiments of the invention relate to various constructional details, including embodiments with arcuate feeder arms, guided by tubular guide parts and embodiments with pivotally supported feeder arms. Since, according to the invention, both the deflecting belt holder fitting and the guide part guiding the feeder arm are jointly retained on a support and consequently form a single unit which is vertically adjustable as a whole, the particular relative position between the belt lug of the feeder arm and the deflecting fitting is thereby maintained. The belt lug can therefore be made small, so that it requires only a small amount of space, is unobtrusive and inconspicuous and in a position of rest does not extend beyond the center column even when the latter is narrow.
Further objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken with the accompanying drawings(s) which show, for purposes of illustration only, an embodiment/several embodiments in accordance with the present invention.